TEIBUTAKIES OF TILL IUO NEGRO. 393 



nineteen more as far as the mouth of the Bio Negro, beside 

 the six towns of Thomare, Moreir-a (near the Bio Deme- 

 nene, or Uaraca, where dwelt anciently the Guiana Indians) 

 Barcellos, San Miguel del Bio Branco, near the river of the 

 same name (so well known in the fictions of El Dorado), 

 Moura, and Villa do Bio Negro. The banks of this tri- 

 butary stream of the Amazon alone are consequently ten 

 times more thickly peopled than all the shores 01 the U pper 

 and Lower Orinoco, the Gassiquiare, the Atabapo, and the 

 Spanish Bio Negro. 



Among the tributary streams which the Bio Negro receives 

 from the north, three are particularly deserving of attention, 

 because on account of their branchings, their portages, and 

 the situation of their sources, they are connected with the 

 often-discussed problem of the origin of the Orinoco. The 

 most southern of these tributary streams are the Bio Branco,* 

 which was long believed to issue conjointly with the Orinoco 

 from lake Parime, and the Bio Padaviri, which communicates 

 by a portage with the Mavaca, and consequently with the 

 Upper Orinoco, to the east of the mission of Esmeralda. 

 We shall have occasion to speak of the Bio Branco and the 

 Padaviri, when we arrive in that mission; it suffices here to 

 pause at the third tributary stream of the Bio Negro, the 

 Cababury, the interbranchings of which with the Cassiquiare 

 are alike important in their connexion with hydrography, 

 and with the trade in sarsaparilla. 



The lofty mountains of the Parime, which border the 

 northern bank of the Orinoco in the upper part of its 

 course above Esmeralda, send off a chain towards the south, 

 of which the Cerro de Unturan forms one of the principal 

 summits. This mountainous country, of small extent but 

 rich in vegetable productions, above all, in the mavacure 

 liana, employed in preparing the wowrali poison, in almond- 



* The Portuguese name, Rio Branco, signifies White River. Rio 

 Parime is a Caribbean name, signifying Great Water. These names 

 having also been applied to different tributary streams, have caused many 

 errors in geography. The great Rio Branco, or Parime, often mentioned 

 in this work, is formed by the Urariquera and the Tacutu, and flows, 

 between Carvoeyro and Villa de Moura, into the Rio Negro. It is the 

 Quecuene of the natives ; and forms at its confluence with the Ilio Negro 

 a very narrow delta, between the principal trunk and the Amayauhau, 

 which is a little branch more to the west. 



